Been Busy

The weeks that passed have been almost all about wedding plans...

January 20 - With the help of my mother's friend we were able to see PSE auditorium and penthouse. I say with the help because we were initially informed that our wedding date was available but only for afternoon functions. I don't know what he did but he got to reserve the auditorium for our luncheon reception. Anyways, for some of you, like me, who didnt' know that there were two available venues for functions in Tektite Towers...well now you know haha! The auditorium is at the ground floor, the one with the stage and looks like a function room in hotels while the penthouse is at the...penthouse wahahaha! Anyways, we chose the penthouse because (1) we don't have to dress it up because it's already pretty on its own and (2) the penthouse was not available on our date. We didn't pay the deposit just yet that day so we just took pictures of the venues.

PSE auditorium

PSE penthouse...look at that view...and Joema's long hair

After that we went home as this was not the only wedding-related thing that we had to do for the day and Joema has to sleep (he met up with me straight from work). But before he had some shut-eye we visited our friendly neighborhood salon and had his hair cut. I'm happy that he finally gave in. I've been bugging him to have a haircut since Christmas but he's always reasoning that he didn't have time. He's happy with his haircut too and told me he'll have his next haircut at our salon.

When he woke up we met up with a photographer. Although we were already happy with him we decided not to make payments yet as we want to meet other photographers and compare their works. After the meeting we headed straight to the mall because Joema wanted to buy some PC games but we went home disappointed (he because he didn't get anything and I because I was tired and he didn't get anything).

January 23 - After office hours, I went to Tektite to meet up with my mom's friend. He accompanied me to pay the reservation fee for the auditorium. So yeah, now we have a reception venue. Yippii!!

January 26 - Yet another sleepless Saturday for Joema. After his shift, we met up for breakfast and then went to our condo to sign the acceptance form. Our unit is finally finished and waiting for us fill it up with furnitures and appliances. I'm more excited about furnishing the unit than dealing with the nitty-gritty of wedding preparations. Can I just say that I'm disappointed with myself coz I thought I will be so into wedding preparations because I like preparing for things, researching for the best deals. The thing I hate the most is meeting with a prospective supplier and then ending up disappointed and not booking him/her at the end. It's tiring. And we're just starting with the preparations. We're not even halfway done yet! Okay I digress.. We're so so excited with our home but at of course at the same time worried about our funds because aside from the wedding we have to set aside money for furniture and stuff for our home. But we figured we'll first buy the important pieces and register for all the rest haha. What are friends and families for, right?

From the condo, we went to SM Megamall to look at the bridal fair. We were searching for photographers and videographers so we went for their booths in the fair. Oh, I don't like the organizer of that fair coz they gave us free gift certificates because we registerd online. The girl even reminded me of the expiry date which is March of this year, if I remember correctly. But when we looked at the other GC's the expiry date printed was Dec2007. Anyways, we didn't bother going back to have it changed. We got a few brochures from the photo/video booths at the fair and discussed them before we met up with Bim Teocson of Playback Videos at the foodcourt. Most of the packages offered at the fair was photo and video packages. And they will slash off only 5thou or 9thou if we get the photo only package. So anyway, when we met up with Bim he showed us his sample videos, some onsite and some prenup videos. He discussed with us how he shoots during the wedding, who chooses the music for the videos, how his team divides the work among themselves during the day itself. We invited Bim to have lunch with us but he said he already ate. After meeting up with him, Joema and I agreed that we'll get him for our videos. We love his work, we like him and his package fits our budget. And so we're off to finding our photographer. We can't get the ones from the fair because they are way over our budget and we didn't really like any of them. We didn't get to meet the photographers personally. The only one we met we were not impressed because he was bragging about the photoshopped photo that they have. As much as possible we wanted that the raw pictures are good enough already. After eating lunch, we met up with another prospective photographer. He's such a brag! So full of himself! Let's just say I went home really disappointed because we're back to finding a photographer. I told Joema that if we don't find a photographer who's within our budget and can amaze us with his photos then I'm okay with the first one we met.

January 28 - My birthday! I didn't go on leave because I had so many things to do at work and I don't have any special plans either. So it was kind of like any other work day for me except that my cell kept on beeping for new messages - another friend or family member greeting me. And after so many years (I think it started when I turned 23), I was really happy on my birthday. No thoughts about getting old, just really excited about what this year will bring me. :)

I had to leave the office earlier than usual. Dropped by the bank to deposit the reservation fee for our videographer. Yey! And then I proceeded to the LTO license renewal kiosk at SM Megamall. We were informed the doctor was out (for the medical exam) so I transferred to Robinsons Galleria. Renewal of driver's license has never been a breeze like that. It didn't take an hour that afternooon. I had time to buy my lola's present (we have the same brithday), go back to the office and go boxing with Pam. When I got home we had KFC chicken, spaghetti and cake. I'm happy as a bee. :) Thanks to everyone who greeted me on my birthday!!! Mwah! Mwah! Mwah!

February 1 - Dinner with Joel, Gary and Mands. It was Joel's birthday last Jan31 so we had a birthday dinner with Gary and Mands. As any dinner with these guys, it was full of chica and panlalait hahaha! Joel gave me a gift - in the card he wrote "Happy birthday. Eto na regalo ko ksi hindi naman ako invited sa shows mo." It was underwear from Marks & Spencer. I love it! He said he was so emabarrased to ask the sales lady the right size (because the size wasn't the usual small, medium and large but numbers 8, 10, etc.) hahaha. Thanks Joel! :) We had dinner at Capricciosa and loved their food! Mands came late because he had dinner date with another friend :p We continued our chica with dessert at Bizu.

February 2 - Joema got to sleep this time because we made dinner plans with Migs for that night. He won't be able to keep his energy the entire night if he didn't get to sleep. But before dinner, we went to Jayson Arquiza's home/office for a meeting. He was very professional, he had an outline of how the meeting will go. First, he showed us a video of how he shoots prenup pictorials. It was much like playing and goofing around. He said "Pag nagprenup tayo wag nyo isipin na pictorial yun, isipin nyo na namasyal tayo ganon lang". Then he showed us his prenup albums, the wedding albums (both hard copy and his new layouts). And then he showed us his AVP onsite and some raw pictures. All in all we were impressed and very at ease with Jayson. Immediately when we left his home, I was very excited to discuss with Joema the things I liked about Jayson and told him to book Jayson already while we're still there. Joema told me that we have to talk about it and he was kind of NR (as in no reaction) pa-cool na parang deadma lang...it turned out he was just teasing me because he said I was so excited and giddy about getting Jayson. Kaasar! It was only during dinner when our friends asked that he said our photographer is Jayson Arquiza of Redefine Weddings. Bruho! Gusto rin pala e nang-aasar pa.

We ate dinner at Dencio's Magallanes. Ja and Chelle got lost on the way over but all's good. Syempre what's a night out with Migs without poker.



February 5 - paid reservation fee for Jayson. Photographer - check!